Analyzing Ethical Issues at Telstra: A Business Case Study on CSR

This case study analyzes unethical employee issues within Telstra, an Australian company, highlighting instances of sudden employee dismissals and inadequate salary increments. These actions have negatively impacted the company's image and employee relations, despite Telstra's stated commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Creating Shared Value (CSV). The study recommends improved communication regarding termination policies and salary negotiations to rebuild employee trust. Furthermore, it suggests offering voluntary retirement packages to unproductive employees, allowing Telstra to leverage their skills while providing economic support for their ventures. The case concludes that while Telstra needs to address stakeholder needs through policies, it must also adhere to ethical and moral principles in treating its employees, and suggests that the company can mitigate employee grievances by implementing the proposed recommendations. Desklib offers a range of similar case studies and solved assignments for students.

UNETHICAL EMPLOYEE
ISSUES
Cases in Telstra

INTRODUCTION
• Business in the global context in different time and places faces different
issues that question this ethical behaviour.
• Business highly depends upon the stakeholders influence on the ethical
decision making and actions.
• Thus companies can utilise CSR and CSV polices to maintain a win win
situation for sustainable development.

BUSINESS ETHICAL ISSUES
• It is the business environment that allows the business to maintain
connection with the stakeholders
• In the case of Telstra, the unethical practices like sudden firing of the
employees and giving them less salary have affected the image of the
company.
• As employees are one of the most important stakeholders, the company
is taking initiatives for eliminate such problems.

CASES OF TELSTRA
• According Brisbanetimes.com.au (2018), the company is sacking more
than 500 employees in two call centres without any compensation.
• Similarly in the news published in Smh.com.au by Noyes (2018) has
pointed out the employee grievances regarding low salary increment.
• This affects the employee relations which create barrier for the growth of
the business performance.

TELSTRA INITIATIVES
• As mentioned before, the employee grievances can affect the
performance of the firm therefore, the management needs to take
measure to prevent such ill effect.
• The higher authority have initiated negotiation process with the employee
units but the percentage of being convinced is lesser than excepted.

CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
• Corporate social responsibility is a policy that helps the companies to
serve the interest of the stakeholders and maintain a positive image in
the markets.
• In the case of Telstra, the company follows CSR policies regarding all the
stakeholders but cannot convince the employees to comply with these
policies.

CREATING SHARED VALUES
• Creating shared values is the concept that guides the companies to follow
the method of balancing the competitiveness of the company along with
the health of the communities depending upon the company.
• The companies that recognise and capitalise these connections between
the economic and social progress get full support from the stakeholders.

RECOMMENDATION
• In the case of Telstra, the main risk is more associated with the employee
issues which are originated from the unethical practice of Telstra itself.
• Therefore, the management must be more communicative with the
sudden changes of the termination policies of the employees (Cordeiro &
Tewari, 2015).
• The negotiation process regarding the salary structure is another aspect
of maintaining trust of the employees.

RECOMMENDATION
• From the aspect of CSV and CSR aspects, the company can follow the
process of asking the unproductive employees to take voluntary
retirement instead of direct termination.
• This process will enable Telstra to utilise the skills of these volunteers in
one hand and support them economically for their start ups.

CONCLUSION
• Therefore, it can be concluded that the company Telstra situated in
Australia is conducting unethical business in the country.
• Despite it needs to cater the needs of the stakeholders through policies,
the company is not following ethical and moral rules to treat the
employees.
• However, some methods can help Telstra to cope up with the employee
grievances if followed properly.

REFERENCES
• Brisbane Times. (2018). Almost 550 Telstra jobs in Queensland 'in the firing
line', union says. Retrieved from https://
www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/almost-550-telstra-jobs-in-
queensland-in-the-firing-line-union-says-20180620-p4zmq4.html
• Cordeiro, J. J., & Tewari, M. (2015). Firm characteristics, industry context,
and investor reactions to environmental CSR: A stakeholder theory
approach. Journal of Business Ethics, 130(4), 833-849.
• Jamali, D., & Carroll, A. (2017). Capturing advances in CSR: Developed
versus developing country perspectives. Business Ethics: A European
Review, 26(4), 321-325.
• Noyes, J. (2018). 'Treated like dirt': Telstra workers reject 'insulting' pay
offer. Retrieved from
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/treated-like-dirt-telstra-worke
rs-reject-insulting-pay-offer-20180810-p4zwuz.html